Worried about little children attending school with much older students? A study says they’ll be better off

Little children shouldn’t be going to school in the same building as teenagers, who might bully them and make them unsafe.

That was one line of argument that parents, educators, and community members laid out against school space-sharing arrangements several years ago, when the Bloomberg administration was working to shoehorn hundreds of new schools into New York City’s school buildings.

The city seemed to respond to that position, emphasizing repeatedly that students of different ages would be kept separated whenever possible, especially in bathrooms. And in 2014, Chancellor Carmen Fariña — representing a new administration — said keeping elementary and high-school students apart would be one of four key factors in space decisions.

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Now, a new study suggests that the worry, and the reaction, might be misguided, at least when students attend the same school.

That’s because schools with students of wide-ranging ages actually have less bullying than schools with just a few grades, researchers from Syracuse and New York universities concluded after studying reports from 90,000 students in more than 500 city schools.

The researchers frame their findings as a discussion of “top dogs” and “bottom dogs” — students who are the most and least powerful in their schools. “We find moving from elementary to middle school hurts bottom dogs because they lose the top dog status they previously held in their old school,” they conclude.

Their recommendation? Keep students in the same schools longer, so that children get to be “top dogs” over more classmates and don’t become “bottom dogs” until they are better equipped developmentally to handle being the youngest in a building.

Making that change within the constraints of existing school structures could be challenging, the researchers concede. But they argue that districts that are undergoing major shifts — like New York City did under Bloomberg — have opportunities to put the findings into use.

“While wholesale school reorganization nationwide would be costly, there may be more opportunity to make such changes in urban areas,” the researchers write, “especially if such school districts are growing or declining and K–8 schools provide more efficient building use.”

While they learned about the history of segregation, a group of Brooklyn 11-year-olds took a good look around their classrooms and realized their schools weren’t so different from the photos in their textbooks.

So Matilda and Eliza Seki paired up with their friends Noa and Benji Weiss — two sets of twins — and decided to do something about it. They launched a petition on Change.org calling on the city to integrate its schools.

“We learned about separate and equal in the civil rights movement, and that it was notequal,” Eliza said, referring to the “separate but equal” legal doctrine once used to justify segregation. “And since there are schools with people of only one race, and it’s all separated, it cannot be equal.”

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Matilda and Eliza are in the sixth grade at M.S. 839, and Noa and Benji are fifth-graders at P.S. 10. They already have a bit of experience in activism, having joined the Women’s March in D.C., and helping to lead environmental clubs at their school. They hold sophisticated views for kids their age, and are aware of the hurdles ingrained in addressing school segregation.

Describing how housing patterns can tie into school quality, Benji began his thoughts by saying: “Let’s say you’re from a different culture or race and you don’t have as much money as other people do — because we still live in a racist country — and you’re in an area where the housing is cheaper but you don’t have as good schools.”

Across New York City, adults have debated how to spur integration in the country’s largest school system — and one of the most segregated. According to one recent analysis, the city’s most selective high schools enroll 84 percent white and Asian students, even though those groups make up only 30 percent of the city’s student enrollment.

But student-organized groups have also been at the forefront of a grassroots movement for more diverse schools. The work of budding advocates Matilda, Eliza, Noa and Benji caught the attention of some those groups, and they’ve now joined the ranks of Teens Take Charge and IntegrateNYC as some of the youngest members. The changes they’d like to see go beyond admissions policies, but also include a push for additional resources for underserved schools, hiring more teachers of color and curricula that reflects all students and cultures.

“We decided it was an important issue and we wanted to help fix it,” Noa said.

Matilda added: “Our schools should look like our city.”

Their schools are in District 15, where 81 percent of white students are concentrated in just three of the district’s most selective middle schools, according to an analysis by parents. The city has launched a series of public workshops to craft a new admissions model to integrate middle schools there, but these kids already have their own ideas for how to do that.

Benji, who is heading to middle school next year, said it would be “pretty good” if schools stopped picking students based on criteria such as class grades and attendance. Such “screening” contributes to segregation because of a number of factors — from which elementary schools students attend, to their parents’ ability to navigate the complicated admissions process.

“It’s… important to learn about different peoples’ backgrounds, and religions, and cultures,” he said. “And also to make sure that all kids, no matter their race, religion or where they live can get the same, good education.”

Balloons, hearts, and ‘die-ins’: How Colorado students marked National Walkout Day

Thousands of students across Colorado poured out of their schools Wednesday to protest gun violence and to remember 17 victims of last month’s deadly shooting in Florida. Chalkbeat’s Melanie Asmar walked with students from East High School to the Colorado State Capitol, where Gov. John Hickenlooper and Speaker of the House Cristanta Duran urged them to remain politically active.

The protests took different forms at other schools – and not everyone wanted the event to be political. There were balloon releases, voter registration drives, and public “die-ins” at major intersections. And in one Denver area school district, a surge of threats cast a pall over events.

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Students at McAuliffe International School in northeast Denver spoke with their shirts. Instead of “Thoughts & Prayers,” they asked for “Policy & Change.”

Students at McAuliffe International School made these shirts for today’s student walkouts. The students here are going to make a big heart on the field in just a couple of minutes. They will also read off the names of the Florida students who died one month ago. @DenverChannelpic.twitter.com/AS3TZpuFyz

Many schools released balloons to honor the victims and found other ways to advocate for change.

Our students decided to gather, and walkout together in unity. We released 17 balloons to honor the Florida school shooting victims, and are now returning classrooms to write a note to our policymakers. #MSDstrong#WestyStrongpic.twitter.com/Lt2ZR7QdES

Students aren’t just marching. They’re also writing their representatives. State Rep. Faith Winter, a Westminster Democrat, tweeted a picture of her inbox full of emails from students.

My email box is full of over 100 emails from students at @WPSNewsNow. Each personally written, each heart felt, each calling for action to end gun violence. To the students your voice is heard, I stand with you. The young people give me hope. #colegpic.twitter.com/y4oyTAhBEc